Posts Tagged ‘calgary flames’

According to a story published in the OC Register Ducks GM Bob Murray is watching those teams with cap issues. The GM also says he has money for Teemu Selanne. Sound cap management should include ample space to move players in and out of the lineup as warranted. Remember a couple of years ago when the Calgary Flames played a few games with a very short bench due to cap mismanagement? We were very nearly in that same predicament recently.

With a reported $4.3m in cap space Murph must have the go ahead to spend to the cap ceiling. He must also be expecting Teemu to take a significant pay cut from last season.

A run down of the CapGeek front page indicates that those teams over the cap if the season started today are Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Los Angeles, Detroit, Edmonton, Columbus and Minnesota.

Murray reportedly thinks September will be an interesting month as teams make players available to get cap compliant. The OCR speculates, as I have, that our Ducks see themselves as set at center. At least for the first 20 games into the season.

With Toni Lydman expected to retire and Murph committed to seeing what Vatanen can do, it’s difficult to see what positions another move might involve. Following the Bobby Ryan trade, Murph did say that he wasn’t done making moves for next season.

If he’s going to bring Teemu back and leave room for player movement any trade will have to involve a contract or two leaving Anaheim. In other words, roster players. This reality suggests Murph is likely to go big or stand pat.

In this cap crunch season there just isn’t anyone out there more exciting or promising than bringing back Teemu Selanne and/or Vinny Prospal.

Daniel Winnick got things started at 1:15 of the first attacking the low slot and snapping a feed from behind the red line from Andrew Cogliano. It was Winnick’s sixth goal of the season and first in 18 games.

Our Ducks would then play a passive defense shell for the next 35 minutes. The Flames took territorial control and out shot our guys 10-4 in the first.

Not even a dance invitation from former Duck Bryan McGratton to Brad Staubitz was accepted. It was the smart play by Staubitz. McGratton was only trying to fire up his teammates. By refusing, Staubitz denied them the opportunity, not they needed it.

In a similar play to Winnick’s goal, Ryan Getzlaf raced to a loose puck along the right mid-boards and whipped it behind the net to Corey Perry. Pears spotted Ryan racing into the left slot shooting lane to complete the tic tac toe score. It was Ryan Getzlaf’s 500 career point, all with our Ducks.

Note: Video links of the first two goals are included to show set plays and also note how both Winnick and Ryan one-timed the pass.

Sheldon Souray put the home squad up by three just 2:12 following the Ryan goal. With Peter Holland providing the screen, Souray blasted a Brad Staubitz pass into the Calgary net.

Ryan Getzlaf put the game out of reach at 16:18 of the third when he took a no look redirect from Bobby Ryan and pushed it behind Kiprusoff.

Coach Boudreau summed it up pretty well, “We sure were outplayed in the first half of the game,” he noted. “Thank goodness for Viktor. Once we scored the second goal, we started to get our legs and started to do the right things, and I think they were frustrated. A win is a win.”

Flames are 4-1-1 in their last six games. This week, they’ve beaten Vancouver and San Jose in regulation time. Mikka Kiprusoff is back between the pipes. Flames are now within striking distance of the playoffs. Indeed all is well for Calgary at the moment.

It’s no big secret how the Flames are getting it done. Their best players, with the exception of Alec Tanguay who remains second in team scoring with 17 pts in 21 games, are all producing right now. Jay Bouwmeester and Dennis Wideman are the workhorses on the blue line each logging over 25:00 minutes per game. Mark Giordano does the heavy match-up lifting.

Flames have their measuring sticks out for this game. Catching the Canucks and Sharks during a dry spell is one thing. Beating the second best team in the league gives credence to their recent hot streak.

For our Ducks, the Flames represent the challenge that good teams win the games they’re supposed to win. The fact that Calgary is going well only adds to the adversity.

Back on January 21, our Ducks beat Calgary 5-4. The game wasn’t as close as the score would suggest. What we did see that night is that these Flames aren’t quitters. They started the season winning just 5 of their first 15 games but are now back in the playoff hunt.

Our Ducks have shown they can also rise to a challenge and find ways to win. My hunch is that our depth prevails in a very spirited game.

Like this:

If one game has looked like so many games of the past few seasons the win tonight was it. Except for the result. Ducks come out dominating and all of sudden they can’t handle success. They quit skating and their game falls apart. Flames are beating us everywhere and claw back from a 3 goal deficit to tie it up.

What a difference a Coach makes. We’ll never know exactly what Gabby said between the second and third periods but an F-bomb or two was likely involved. Amazingly though Coach didn’t change the plan. He didn’t shorten the bench and wear down the stars. He trusted the second line to get going and they did have at least one scoring chance in the third. He threw rookie Kyle Palmieri out there in the waning minutes with the game on the line. Coach also entrusted key TOI to the 4th line with less than 5 minutes to play in a one goal game.

This is how a Coach builds a team. As bbdux93 once posted here, ‘You play hockey to earn the respect and trust of your teammates.”

That’s the takeaway from this road trip. The seeds of a team is being established. It’s very young. Two games young to be exact. It can turn. It’s too soon to make predictions. Just as its unreasonable to hope Dan Winnick to score 96 goals in 48 games.

Tonight our Ducks caught themselves before they let one get away against a team they must beat if they are to make the playoffs.

They forced Flames Coach Bob Hartley to keep; the Iginla line away the Top Line and the Stopper Line.

Our Ducks are 2-0 even though Bobby Ryan has yet to register a point. Even though Jonas Hiller has had great moments but wasn’t required to steal either game for us. Even though Nick Bonino is playing like a 4th liner. Even though the PK unit allowed 2 PP goals in each game. Even though they quit skating for ten consecutive minutes and worse skated with the Flames for another ten minutes.

Obviously this team is a long way from firing on all cylinders. Still they won back2back road games without having to play perfect hockey for 60 minutes. What they do with that will speak volumes in the coming days and weeks.

Season series: It’s the first of three meetings between the teams, who don’t see each other again until the Flames come to Anaheim in early March. The teams split their four games last season, with each going 2-1-1.

Big story: It’s Game 2 of 48 for both teams, but they come into this one feeling markedly different about themselves. Anaheim could kick back Sunday after routing the Canucks 7-3 in Vancouver the night before and watch the Flames get off to a good start against San Jose, only to have the Sharks score three times in the second period on the way to a 4-1 win.

Team Scope:

Ducks: Teemu Selanne continues to defy Father Time. At 42 years and 200 days, he had a pair of goals and two assists in the victory at Vancouver, making him the oldest player since Gordie Howe in 1971 to get four points in a game. He did it all in just 15:08 of ice time, more than two minutes below his average last season.

“It’s an amazing thing. You don’t expect it but it happens,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau told Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times via by phone Sunday. “I know he can play better. He’s had better nights. But everything he touched was gold [Saturday] night. It was great.”

Selanne, who was playing his 1,342nd career game, moved past Dale Hawerchuk and into 18th spot in all-time scoring with 1,410 points.

“He is so good with the puck, knowing where other people are. He’s scored [667] goals: he knows what to do with it,” Boudreau said. “But like everybody else, I’ve seen him with more energy and skate better but it wasn’t because of his age. It was because it was the first game, with no preseason.”

The Ducks also helped themselves by connecting on all three of their power plays, though they allowed a pair with Selanne in the box.

Flames: The sellout crowd at Scotiabank Saddledome had plenty to cheer about in the first period of Sunday’s season-opener — the Flames led San Jose 1-0 after the opening 20 minutes, and only 15 saves by Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi kept the score close. But the last two periods were another story — San Jose scored three times in the second period and added a late power-play goal to spoil the night for the Flames and their fans.

“We had our chances and Niemi played well,” said Lee Stempniak, who scored Calgary’s only goal. “We hit a post early on. Those are all things that I think contributed but for us, we stopped skating and things sort of fell apart. To me that’s the issue.”

Getting right back onto the ice might be a good thing for the Flames.

“You leave that game behind and look forward to the next game and focus on that,” center Mikael Backlund said.

Injury report: Anaheim may have defenseman Cam Fowler back in the lineup after he missed Saturday’s game with the flu. … The Flames were without new additions Roman Cervenka and Jiri Hudler on Sunday. Cervenka is out with a blood clot, and Hudler is nursing an abdominal injury before returning to the Czech Republic to attend his father’s funeral. Defenseman Anton Babchuk is still out with a shoulder injury.

Like this:

Our Ducks Finnish connection just got a little stronger as Bargain Bob Murray claimed LW Niklas Hagman off re-entry waivers from the Calgary Flames. It’s really a no-brainer pickup. Hagman is UFA at the end of the season. He’s a pure sniper who’s enjoyed seasons of 27, 25, 22 and 20 during a 9 year NHL career.
Hagman is also a journeyman. Our Ducks will be his 5th team after stops in Florida, Dallas, Toronto and Calgary.
So why should Anaheim be any different from the four other teams who gave up on him? For one, hailing from Espoo, he speaks Finnish without an accent. Two, he’ll get a shot to play alongside countrymen who are legends. Three, I don’t know for a fact but I believe at least Teemu & Saku were probably asked if they could work with Hagman.
So yeah, this is Bargain Bob at his discount rack shopping best. Hagman is UFA at the end of this season. Calgary picks up half of the remaining 2.4million on his contract. Bargain Bob just scooped up a four time 20+ goal scorer for the low, low price of about $1.2million AND the guy has some Olympic history with 3 of our key players.
Yesterday, bbdux94 considered whether or not we should go out and get some veteran help for the B6. We just got our answer. That help will come in the persons of two of Hagman or Cogliano and later Jason Blake.

Kind of fun to be part of a blog that runs a day or a week ahead of the team, no?

In other Ducks Doin’s Peter Holland was sent back to Syracuse. That’ll teach him to pot a GWG for a team averaging two goals a game.